TOBY PRESS PUBLISHES ENQUIST'S LATEST EUROPEAN BESTSELLER

The Ice Carriers to be Released in July 2003

"Enquist…writes resolutely, her sentences are rock-solid, and she never lets the pace slacken. Hers is the voice of a writer who knows exactly where she's going."
-NRC Handelsblad ( The Leading Dutch Newspaper)

THE ICE CARRIERS, best-selling writer Anna Enquist's third novel, revolves around the charged relationships between husband and wife, parent and child. Nico is a director of a psychiatric hospital, Louise a teacher of classical languages, but their successes in life become meaningless when their only daughter runs away from home. Outwardly they continue as ever, but internally they are falling apart. Grasping for control, they throw themselves into separate projects; Nico plans far-reaching changes in the hospital, Louise designs a beautiful garden. Nico runs into serious objections to his plans and begins alienating his staff. Hostile conditions frustrate all of Louise's efforts; plants and vegetables failing to achieve purchase in the sandy soil. As the tension mounts, it becomes clear that only tragedy can result from the couple's refusal to face reality. The powerful emotions of loss and frustration are expressed with poignancy in this vivid novel.

Anna Enquist is a musician, a psychoanalyst, a poet and a novelist. One of the best-loved writers of her native Holland, she is also a best-selling author in Germany, Switzerland, France, Sweden and Austria. Her first collection of poetry won the award for new Dutch poetry -- the prestigious C. Buddingh' prize -- and has been followed by four more collections of poetry, all of which have gone back to press frequently. Her novels have achieved similar acclaim; her first, The Masterpiece proved to be a runaway bestseller with over 250,000 copies sold. Her second, The Secret, which has sold in similar numbers, won the 1997 Dutch Readers' Prize. Both are available from The Toby Press.

THE ICE CARRIERS is translated from the Dutch by Jeannette K. Ringold, and is available from The Toby Press in paperback in July 2003. Anna Enquist will shortly be visiting the U.S. under the auspices of the Foundation for the Production and translation of Dutch Literature & the Dutch Embassy in Washington D.C.